We spent several nights at Cleburne State Park in East Texas, which is about an hour south of Fort Worth. So, we decided to throw on some cowboy boots and head to the Stockyards. Well, the girls threw on some cute, teal cowgirl boots; and I threw on some Uggs, instead. Also, I’m pretty sure Ray wore his usual Converse. But, we headed out, nonetheless.
We got there just in time to check out the 4 p.m. Fort Worth Herd cattle drive, where the longhorns walk along Exchange Avenue. It was quite a sight to see those massive bulls make their way down the road. Loads of people were there to watch the parade.
There are plenty of tourist traps for the kids at the Stockyards, so we partook in a couple: a petting zoo and a photo with a longhorn (cringe).
We were able to take in some good Texas Barbecue and some interesting sights along Exchange Avenue. As usual, I was interested in the history. From the late 1800s to the mid 1900s, the Fort Worth stockyards was an organized place where cattle, sheep, and hogs could be bought, sold and slaughtered. In fact, the place where we ate our all-you-can-eat ribs is inside Stockyards Station, which was once hog and sheep pens.
The main event of the Stockyards visit was the Stockyards Championship Rodeo. We watched bull riding, calf roping (which was pretty disturbing, to be quite honest), barrel racing, and some rope tricks. The girls enjoyed most of it, but were pretty tired by the time it ended at 10:30ish.
While in East Texas, we also got a chance to check out a quaint, little town called Glen Rose. Part of its claim to fame is that actual dinosaur tracks have been discovered in the area. Some of the best preserved tracks are located in Dinosaur Valley State Park, where dinosaurs left footprints in the mud at the edge of an ancient ocean. Those tracks are stamped in time in the bed of the Paluxy River. Depending on water levels, you can see some of them. Just outside of the state park is Dinosaur World, which houses a museum, a dinosaur trail, the boneyard, a nifty playground, and some animatronics dinosaurs. Even downtown Glen Rose boasts a couple of preserved dinosaur tracks that have been moved to the town square for people to view.
Not far from Glen Rose, in the town of Cleburne, we visited the Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum, where we learned about the Native Americans who once lived in the area, the cattle drives, and some of the first English settlers to the region.
We packed a lot into our handful of days in East Texas, but the highlight was a weekend visit with Ya Ya, Papa, KeKe, and Baby Wren. They came out for Ya Ya’s birthday, and we loved spending time with them at the playground, celebrating at a delicious Mexican restaurant, and checking out Big Rocks Park in Glen Rose. We definitely have some great memories from this stop on our trip!
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